The Horizon Report 2007

The annual Horizon Report , now available at http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2007_Horizon_Report.pdf describes the continuing work of the New Media Consortium’s Horizon project – a research oriented effort that seeks to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have a large impact on teaching, learning or creative expression within higher education. Covering topics as diverse as emerging forms of publication, gaming and user-created content and given adoption horizons of 1-5 years, the report makes for compulsory (and fascinating) reading.

Revised Christmas & New Year Opening Hours

Saturday 15th December: Closed
Monday 17th - Thurs 20th: 9.30am-5.15pm
Friday 21st: 9.30am-2.30pm
Saturday 22nd - Tues 1st Jan: Closed
Wednesday2nd - Thurs 3rd: 9.30am-9.30pm
Friday 4th: 9.30am-9.15pm
Saturday 5th January: 10.00am-5.00pm

Full term-time opening hours resume from Monday 7th January

EndNote Training for Staff and Post-grads

Aungier Street library will be running 2 introductory Endnote training sessions on Wednesday 28th November and Wednesday December 5th at 1:10pm. The venue is the library training room. The session will cover:
· Introduction to Endnote
· Creating an Endnote Library
· Manually adding references to an Endnote library
· Selecting a reference type and style
· Inserting references into a Word document.
· Deleting a reference from a Word document.

To book a place, please contact Israel Chidavaenzi at 402 7167 or email at Israel.chidavaenzi@dit.ie. Places are limited so they are offered on a first come first served basis. This session is for staff and PG students only.

Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive Repository (IVRLA)

Monday September 17th saw the launch of the Irish Virtual Research Library and Archive repository (IVRLA), a research strand within the Humanities Institute of Ireland and a key component in humanities research infrastructure for Irish third level institutions.

IVRLA is a digital archive containing a number of digitised collections from UCD’s holdings, of use and interest to Irish humanities researchers. The IVRLA has developed a sophisticated interface enabling users to browse, search, tag and cite digital objects and view or download them in a variety of file formats. The repository is accessible at http://ivrla.ucd.ie/

Have you used MetaFind?

Tired of repeating searches in multiple databases, catalogues, search engines? Let MetaFind make it easy. MetaFind provides a single interface which allows you to simultaneously search multiple sources in one fell swoop! Find it at http://library.dit.ie

Attitudes to Advertising

Mintel has recently added a number of new reports to its suite of Irish reports. “Attitudes to Advertising” (November 2007) provides detailed coverage of key drivers as well as the very latest volume and value data. Also included are assessments of emerging trends, the activities of existing market players, brand ownership details, future scenarios and statistical forecasts. Other recent additions include :

• The Night Out: is one venue enough? (November 2007)


• Wine: are we becoming more European in our outlook? (October 2007)


• The Day Out: where families spend money outside the home. (September 2007)

Access Mintel through the library web pages

Irish Times Digital Archive – Free Trial

The Library has arranged a free trial of The Irish Times Digital Archive for the month of November. It is a fully searchable online archive containing every page of The Irish Times published since the newspaper's foundation in 1859.

Follow the Irish Times link from the Library Database website http://www.dit.ie/DIT/library/resources/databases/index.html and click on the Digital Archive logo on the right of the screen.

We are trying to negotiate a site licence to cover all DIT users. Comments/feedback to Allison at ext. 3166, Israel at ext. 7167 or Ciaran at ext. 7166.

Embedded classes

Following DIT Library Services’ summer Information Literacy project, Aungier St Library has been working with academic staff to deliver embedded information literacy classes in a number of courses.

Aungier St librarians are currently delivering information skills courses of between four and seven hours in duration to first year students of the BSc in Accounting & Finance, BSc in Business & Legal Studies, BSc in Marketing, BA in Media Arts, BA in Photography, and BSc in Product Design. We also have several other courses in the pipeline.

Books from All over the World.

Are you searching for a book, report, paper or journal article which just does not seem to be available anywhere? We can help!

The Document Delivery service at Aungier Street Library can search all Irish and UK academic libraries for your request as well as the British Library Document Supply centre – the largest ‘lending factory’ in the world. We can even, through the British Library, initiate a world wide search for the item if it is important enough and borrow from anywhere in the world on your behalf. In addition we can organise electronic delivery of papers to your desktop. AND – there is a 24 hour delivery service available if the need is great.

Standard cost to the Library is €22 per book and €20 per paper. We charge our undergraduate users €6 per item and €8 for staff and post-graduates. (World-wide searches are obviously more expensive.) For further information contact Fiachra at 7176.

Information Literacy – A menu of choices!

Today’s students are surrounded by extraordinary quantities of information and often have difficulty in locating the right information effectively and ethically. Allison Kavanagh, assistant librarian at Aungier Street Library, was seconded for three months over the summer to examine the current and potential role of Library Services in achieving DIT’s strategic aim of producing information literate graduates.

As part of her report, Allison produced a menu of course options, with learning outcomes and objectives, which allows library and academic staff to work together in constructing an information skills course relevant to the level and needs of the students in question. A number of advanced courses aimed at staff and post-grads is also included.

The menu includes:

• Finding Books
• Finding Journal Articles from a citation
• Developing a Search Strategy and Using it in Library Databases
• Specialised Library Databases
• Effective Internet Searching and Evaluating Information
• Plagiarism, Referencing and Citing
• Endnote – introductory, intermediate and advanced courses
• Current Awareness for Researchers
• Citation Searching and using Journal Citation Reports.

If academic staff would like to organise a tailored session for their students please contact Allison at 3266, Israel at 7167 or Ciaran at 7166.

Keep up to date with Science Direct’s Top 25 list

ScienceDirect's TOP25 is a free service that allows you to quickly pinpoint the key new developments and trends in your field by providing you with a list of the 25 most read articles from over 2000 peer reviewed journals.

You can also register and set-up free e-mail alerts - a handy way for busy researchers to efficiently identify those "must-read" articles without spending too much time.

Try it today. Select your preferred field of interest and the current top 25 articles are listed to the right. Click on each one to read the full paper.

DIT Library Services: Supporting Research

Date: Thursday 4th October 2007

Time: 10.00am - 12.00pm

Venue: FOCAS Centre, Camden Row

Chair: Dr Frank McMahon

Building on the findings from our recent Research Support Survey, we invite all staff to attend a seminar to explore some new initiatives for supporting researchers throughout the Institute.
One of these initiatives will:

• Raise the profile of individual researchers


• Showcase the Institute's academic research output


• Disseminate research findings to a greater audience


• Connect those with similar research interests


• Facilitate further networking and collaborative opportunities

Question: How?

Answer: An institutional research repository

This seminar will provide an opportunity to learn more, see a repository in action and explore the possibilities for DIT.

PROGRAMME

9.30am Registration

10.00am Welcome and opening remarks Professor Brian Norton

10.15am Library support for research: new initiatives Ann McSweeney - Senior Librarian

10.30am What is a Research Repository? Brian Gillespie - Faculty Librarian

10.45am TARA: A working research repository Niamh Brennan - TCD Library

11.15am How it would work in DIT Yvonne Desmond - Faculty Librarian

11.30am General discussion and closing remarks Dr Philip Cohen, Head of Library Services

12.00pm Lunch

Reserve a place with Anne Ambrose on ast.library@dit.ie before Wednesday 26th September, please.

ECCH Case Writing Scholarships

Are you a research student? Does your field research have teaching case potential? Would financial support help?
Every year ECCH awards up to 10 scholarships to research students in business and management to develop teaching case studies based on their field research. Scholarships are worth £1,525 sterling and the winner also gets a place on an ECCH case writing workshop.
For further details contact www.ecch.com/scholarships

New Campaign EMag

Campaign is now available as an online magazine and delivers the look and feel of the printed magazine to your screen. No need to download or install software – simply visit www.brandrepublic.com/campaign to get the latest edition every Thursday morning. You can also get the publishers to send you an email reminder.

Help is at Hand – New E-Mail reference service

Need some help over the holidays with dissertation research or any aspect of your studies? The Library now provides an email reference service to all students and staff based at Aungier Street. This includes help in
• Searching the library's databases for articles or reports on a particular topic,
• Tracking down the full text of article citations,
• Finding books on a particular topic.

Aungier Street students and staff members who can’t come to the library, or who have reference questions arising outside of opening hours can now email their questions to aungier.info@dit.ie . We will respond to your query on the next business day.

New for the Summer

Dancing with Giants: China, India and the Global Economy; Consultative Selling;
Innovation in Marketing; Globalization: the key concepts are amongst the 138 new book titles received by the library in July. We have particularly extended our Innovation section this month.
To see the full monthly list go to New Books List on the Library Catalogue

Intute : Environment - new section created

Intute: is a "free online service providing you with access to the very best Web resources for education and research, evaluated and selected by a network of subject specialists". This service has recently expanded to include a newly devised Environment section.

Of interest to Aungier Street staff may be the sections on Environmental Economics, Environmental Law and Legislation and Environmental Management.

Intute at http://www.intute.ac.uk/sciences/environment/ contains over 3,000 records which describe lecture notes, journals, government publications, non-profit organisation sites, and other websites under a variety of subject headings.

Purchasing a Personal Copy of EndNote

DIT Staff and students can now purchase personal copies of EndNote from the producers, Adept Scientific, at a discounted price as part of the Library subscription package. Application forms are available in the library. This form must be stamped with a library stamp to prove the applicant is a registered staff or student member of DIT. Cost for a personal copy without a manual is €113.97 Euro and with a manual €128.68 Euro.

“Anxiety Society” - New Mintel report on Irish Lifestyles

The 2007 Irish Lifestyles report is now available on Mintel. It portrays a worried generation of Irish people whose top concerns are health, personal finance and crime.
Other 2007 reports include Multiple vs Symbol Group Retailing: cost v convenience; Attitudes to Saving; Male Grooming; Private Medical Insurance; Pensions: can we afford to retire?; Food Retailing Ireland; Irish Dairy Market; White Spirits; Children’s Toys and Games; Holidays: the Irish Abroad; Social Hubs; Women’s Cosmetics.
Access Mintel Irish Reports at Mintel
http://0-academic.mintel.com.ditlib.dit.ie/

Journal Citation Reports Update

The Journal Citation Reports (JCR) database has now been updated with 2006 data. Impact factors are available for almost 8,000 scholarly journals across the sciences, arts and social sciences. Access JCR via the library web pages at http://www.dit.ie/DIT/library/resources/databases/index.html and select JCR from the alphabetical list of databases.

RSS Feed Now Available

RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is an XML-based format for sharing and distributing Web content, such as news headlines. Using an RSS reader, you can view data feeds from various news sources, including headlines, summaries, links to full stories.
To start using RSS, you need a special news reader or aggregator that displays RSS content feeds from Web sites you select. There are many different news readers available, many of which are free of charge. Many are available as desktop software that you download and install on your computer ie Newsgator. Several Web-based news readers such as Google, Bloglines and Yahoo, are available as well. These have the added advantage of not tying you down to using a machine which has the software installed. All you have to do is sign up to an account.
Once you subscribe to a newsreader you will be able to gather information from numerous different websites together in the one place. You can now even add Aungier St. Library News to your RSS reader. Click the link 'subscribe in a reader' on the right sidebar of this page and choose whichever reader you have subscribed to. For example, if you have a Google account just click the 'add to google' icon, follow the instructions and you will have the Library Headlines on your Google homepage or in your Google reader.

EndNote - Reminder

An EndNote Level 1 training session will be held in the DIT Aungier St. Training Room at 1.30pm tomorrow. Please contact Israel at ext 7167 to confirm your place.

E-mail reference service in Aungier Street

The Library is now offering an E-mail reference service to patrons who cannot avail of help at the Information desk, particularly those who can not come to the library. The Library guarantees a response to all queries within 24 hours, Monday through Thursday. Queries received on Friday, weekends and holidays will be dealt with as soon as possible on the next working day.
All reference queries are welcome but please note that this service is designed to provide you with brief, factual answers to specific questions. Send your queries to aungier.info@dit.ie
For more indepth queries contact one of the librarians @ ext 3068

EndNote: managing references the easy way!

Millions of researchers, academics and students worldwide use EndNote to organise their references, create bibliographies and search online bibliographic databases. Now DIT staff and students are getting the opportunity to use this leading edge software.
Library Services are delighted to announce that we have negotiated an institutional licence for EndNote which allows staff and students to use the software both within and outside of the DIT network.
EndNote will allow you to:
Automatically create references, footnotes and bibliographies in your written research reports, assignments or dissertations.
Create and maintain your own reference database of citations by importing references from a variety of electronic sources such as library catalogues, databases etc.
Generate a bibliography in the correct citation style for publication.
The library will offer hands-on, practical training sessions on EndNote from next September. Individual staff or post-grads who would like training over the summer period should contact Allison at 3266, Israel at 7167 or Ciaran at 7166.